What goes in must come out!

Hi all, first post on runner's world. I have been running for about 6 months and have just entered my first half marathon. I am sorry to lower the tone with my first post but I was wondering if most races have toilets along the route (just in case). It has never been an issue but nearly got caught out yesterday, I think the passing motorists must Have thought I was from the ministry of funny runs! I don't want to load up on carbs the day before and then find myself looking for dock leaves during the race. Sorry again.

most races no.

huge races, sometimes.

All about working out exactly what works for you.

Personally after years of trying out what works for me, i follow the below

Race Day/Hard runs

• No eating 3 hours before
• no diary
• weetabix/toast 3hours before, so if anything you feel a little hungry as you start

Other things to be careful of

fruit (except for bananas)
coffee
lucozade

I can tell you from bitter experience, that any combo of fruit, lucozade, skimmed milk and pasta too soon before a run = destroyed countryside.

I Don't tend to eat before my morrning run so I was surprised to get caught out. The thought of a lucozade / coffee / milk combo sounds positively explosive, how much do you eat the day before ?

Sussex, how about a diary of dairy?

Galactic, basically something like a cooked meat/veg meal in the evening with possible beans on toast later, but in the day reasonably light, rice, banana, energy bar, peppermint tea and oat cakes.

And that's on average 10miles a day running over 2 runs. ( 1 rest day)

i can recommend drinking a hot water early morning. Clear that system out

I quite like the idea of  including  the odd diary to add a bit of bulk to the diet. I suspect some celebrity diary's are particularly difficult to digest with little nutritional value, perhaps they could be used as an alternative to dock leaves?

Peppermint tea? *cough, gay, cough*

Imodium gets my vote

Lardy baby, anything that stops the dreaded poops works for me!

Taking tablets to fix something should be a last resort though...dietary changes can sort most people

You should be ok, if you don't have too much a few days before-hand. Normally I only go twice a week, due to strict diet and not been caught out - especially on a short run as a 1/2 Marathon. Sometimes on very long runs lasting several hours, there has been a need to go, although that is mainly due to running releasing the system.

There is often queues at toilets pre-race for a reason. We are all determined not to get caught short on the actual race. There is no race rule i think once on the road, other than, try and do it privatly.

Killermiles, you go to the toilet twice a week?

Don't you think that's a serious warning from your body that you don't eat anywhere near enough?

As if your dangerously low weight, and looking 10years older than your actual age wasn't enough warning

i think if normally you are ok then don't worry about it.............

killermiles......if you work harder on your toileting training I'm sure you can cut that down to once every month or so.....no point in wasting good training time.i feel this is one area you have neglected.....

*perks up at resurrection of fave scatological thread*

What NOT to do: as I did yesterday: big curry and too much wine Friday night followed by long run Saturday morning. Nuff said, it wasn't pretty.  

Galactic, I find that if you get up and eat 3 hour before race, and allow yourself lots of time to er--- prepare your bowel before the race, that usually works. Having said that, I got caught short despite this at my last HM and just about made it to the loos-- destroyed the first half of my race.  But I didn't eat bland enough food the night before.